The Milk star will play a retired special ops soldier trying to free a member of his family who has been kidnapped in Afghanistan who teams up with a war correspondent, played by Bale, Deadline reports.

The film has been scripted by 300's Kurt Johnstad from an idea by Zack Snyder, who is producing with his wife Deborah, and will be directed by Niels Arden Oplev, director of the original Swedish adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

After the journalist, played by Bale, witnesses an attack on a group of Americans in Afghanistan, he agrees to help Penn's character identify the kidnappers and track them down, in exchange for the story.

Their mission takes them through dangerous terrain and tribal regions of Afghanistan, and they are refused any help from diplomats.

The film is due to begin shooting next year, when Bale has finished work on The Dark Knight Rises.